Comments on: Personal Balance Sheet, September 2007 ($116,475, +9.4%)

By: Flexo

Flexo — Wed, 31 Oct 2007 14:39:20 +0000

Nicole: I agree! With savings rates decreasing, I’ll certainly be paying my student loan off faster. In October, I sent $5,000 to the student loan rather than the minimum payment as I had been doing. However, I don’t want to be in the position of borrowing more for a house when it comes time to buy (whenever that may be) because that will be at a higher rate, so I’ll need to maintain a strong cash position.

I’ll write more about this when I review my October financials in the next few days.

By: Nicole

Nicole — Wed, 31 Oct 2007 14:18:41 +0000

Just found this website – congrats on the progress your making increasing your net worth. I struggle with the student loan thing too. Have you done the math taking into account the taxes you have to pay on the interest you earn from your savings account vs. any tax benefit you receive from your student loan? Even with my 2.85% student loan interest, I’m not really making that much of a profit from my savings account interest, because my taxes eat up so much of my profit. I don’t get any tax break on my student loan interest because of my income level. Rather than paying off your student loan in full, have you considered paying down the principal faster?

By: Flexo

Flexo — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 22:40:04 +0000

Paul: I like the visual bar graphs as well. Seeing those bars grow higher is good motivation.

By: Paul

Paul — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 20:13:49 +0000

I create a similar report directly from MS Money, but I explicitly exclude Cash, since I also don’t keep as close track of cash as I should and the growing balance tends to skew my results.

Also, I like running a “Net worth over time” report as a bar chart. It really helps me to see at a glance just how much my net worth is increasing each month. It’s a nice visual to see those bars grow higher and higher each month. And it keeps me motivated as well.

Keep up the good work!

By: FrugalTrader

FrugalTrader — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 17:23:01 +0000

Congrats Flexo on making huge increases in your net worth.

By: Flexo

Flexo — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 15:21:13 +0000

I use edmunds.com's private party value.

By: Dave

Dave — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 15:15:32 +0000

Just out of curiosity how did/do you determine the asset value of your car?